Hands on: Apple’s Podcasts app loses reel animation, gains playlists

Last summer, Apple released the Podcasts application as a new way to play podcasts on your iOS device. Until that time, this was a job done by the built-in iPod or Music app, but as of iOS 6, podcasts disappear from Music if you have the Podcasts app installed. The initial poor performance and bugginess were addressed as the year progressed, albeit not to everyone's satisfaction. And the astonishingly accurately animated reel-to-reel tape deck displayed as podcasts played was seen as a prime example of Apple's foray in excessive skeuomorphism.

But as of this week's release of Podcasts 1.2, skeuomorphism is out the door. And you know what? I actually miss the reel-to-reel tape deck animation a little. But now at least I don't have to worry about the animation using up valuable battery life.

Playlists

A more important change is that Podcasts now has playlists, found under "My Stations." Four different types, even: the On-The-Go playlist, custom "stations," and both smart and regular playlists synced from iTunes. The iTunes playlists behave largely as expected: you get to edit the regular ones, letting you reorder and remove episodes... but not add any. There's no editing of smart playlists, and Podcasts inherits an issue that Music has had in recent years: the order of episodes in a smart playlist set in iTunes is not carried over. Instead, episodes are sorted by the Artist field (usually the podcast's name), then the star rating from high to low, and finally alphabetically by episode name.

The On-The-Go playlist doesn't suffer from these issues: it lets you add, reorder, and remove episodes. Although you can set whether episodes are shown from old to new or from new to old and, separately, whether they play oldest first or newest first for each individual podcast feed, the On-The-Go interface always adds episodes at the top. But you can also add episodes to the On-The-Go playlist through a big button on the episode's information screen. In this case, they're added at the bottom.

As a strong old-goes-on-top proponent, I really hope Apple doesn't simplify all of this by making new-goes-on-top the only option. If that's the alternative, please give me this mess instead. But a global new-goes-on-top vs old-goes-on-top default setting would certainly go a long way here.

Stations

Last but not least, you get to build your own stations. These are basically smart playlists. Two are provided out of the box: Most Recent and All Unplayed. The Most Recent station has one episode of every podcast. Strangely, for podcasts synced from iTunes, it's the oldest episode, while for podcasts that you're subscribed to within Podcasts, it's the newest. The episodes are ordered from the newest to the oldest. The All Unplayed station obviously has all unplayed episodes in it, grouped by podcast.

You also get to make your own stations. You can select which podcasts to include, and how many episodes. You only get to select the 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 most recent ones (if you don't want to include all), but for iTunes-synced podcasts, this actually seems to mean "oldest." The episodes can then be ordered manually, in "most recent" order or in the order you've set up in "My Podcasts." Please Apple, how hard is it to add "least recent" and "alphabetically"? The ordering is important, because episodes play one after the other. (You can still avoid automatically starting the next podcast with the sleep timer, now reachable through the little clock with zz icon above the artwork in the playback screen.)

Last but not least, you can include audio or video podcasts or both, and limit the station to unplayed episodes only. I listen to several science podcasts, so I make a station that collects those. I'm also catching up on some podcasts I recently discovered. For these, I set up a station that has a single "most recent" unplayed episode of just one podcast. This allows me to find the next episode easily, and playback automatically stops after that one episode, so I don't have to listen to ten episodes of the same podcast in a row.

iCloud

The new Podcasts app supports iCloud syncing of playback positions and custom stations. Playback position syncing worked for the most part between my iPhone and iTunes 11 on my second Mac—which is not the computer that the iPhone syncs with. In many cases, the playback positions carried over accurately, but it also happened, especially when going back and forth between the iPhone and the computer quickly, that playback resumed at a position where I had paused previously on the other device.

iTunes 10.7 and the Apple TV don't support iCloud playback position syncing, and syncing of "stations" is apparently limited to iOS devices. I only have one iPhone 5, so I was unable to test syncing of stations. It also looks like the fact that you finished playing an episode isn't propagated from one device to another, so autodelete isn't triggered through iCloud. Syncing through USB or Wi-Fi works as before.

The small stuff

Like iTunes on the computer before it, Podcasts now also notices when you don't listen to a podcast and then stops updating it. This happens if you fail to play the last five episodes. If you happen to be subscribed to a high volume podcast that delivers five or more new episodes at a time, Podcasts takes note of your lax listening habits after each update.

Speaking of updating feeds: you can let Podcasts do this automatically. However, I couldn't figure out how often Podcasts updates feeds, so I ended up initiating an update manually fairly frequently. This is done by pulling down the episode list in a feed until a bubble forms and ultimately pops. It does look like autodeletion of podcast episodes finally works—but only for those podcasts that you subscribe to on the device itself.

Podcasts now shows a badge with the number of unplayed podcast episodes that it has on board. You can turn this off in the Notifications settings. But despite having a full complement of notification settings, as far as I can tell Podcasts won't show any notifications when new episodes arrive.

I find the episode listing screen rather cramped on the iPhone: on the iPhone 5, only five episodes fit on the screen. Worse, episode names are limited to about 25 characters. Often, that's not enough to tell you what an episode is about. You can see the full episode name and a (long) description by tapping on the little chevron button, which is good, but unfortunately, on that screen you don't get to download an episode—you do get to add it to the On-The-Go playlist, though.

Also, it would be nice to be able to swipe from episode to episode, but that's not possible, you have to return to the episode list and tap another chevron. All of this makes managing a feed with a lot of episodes harder than it needs to be. But that's true of all the podcast apps I've tried, and at least Podcasts allows you to decide which episodes to download through iTunes on your computer, where even the longest episode titles comfortably fit on the screen.

I do like the swiping to the right to get back to the previous screen from the playback screen. And moving between the My Podcasts and My Stations sections is very convenient, as each section is still in its previous state when you return.

One last small criticism: when playing music with the Music app open, the song's artwork will show on the lock screen. If you then unlock the iPhone, the Music controls appear above and below the artwork nice and seamlessly. When playing a podcast in Podcasts, the artwork also shows in the lock screen in the right position. But when unlocking the screen when Podcasts is running, the app appears in a zoom-in animation, the same way other apps do when unlocking the screen.

All in all, Podcasts can still use a little bit more polish, but it has come a long way and is very functional as is. If you value integration with iTunes on the computer, Podcasts is the podcast app you're looking for. If you want to manage your podcast life solely under iOS, you have a number of third-party choices, but Apple's app is finally able to hold its own among these.

56 Reader Comments

Like iTunes on the computer before it, Podcasts now also notices when you don't listen to a podcast and then stops updating it.

Podcasts has done this since the first version. Version 1.2 is just the first version to tell you that it has stopped updating the podcast and give you a way to reset the behavior besides manually clicking every new podcast until you get around to listening again.

Does it still try to download the entire back catalogue of a podcast series over cellular data?

I haven't extensively tested this, but it seems to respect the "no cellular" setting. When I tried to stream a podcast episode away from wifi, it asked me if I wanted to temporarily switch on using cellular data.

Can you detail how you got iCloud position syncing between itunes 11 and iOS device to work ? Few of us discussing this on the ARS forum haven't been able to make it work consistently. It may work once or twice, then thats it. One forum member said it works if he quits iTunes, which isn't much of an option.

Strictly speaking, the tape reel wasn't skeuomorphic. If it had had some sort control function, like dragging on the reel to skim forward or backward, it would be, but now it was just decor. Silly decor as it used up space that could have been spent on controls, and I'm glad it's gone, but skeuomorphic it wasn't.

i miss the tape reel too. it was so pretty. and was even vaguely helpful in displaying how much "tape" was left. damn your tasteful design sensibility Jony Ive!

Each to their own but I found it awful, it was so user unfriendly and wasteful of space it felt to me like they had concentrated all their efforts on that and completely missed the point of the whole app - to let you get and listen to podcasts. I'm so glad they decided to listen to the feedback, I find it to be a sign that they are still in the business of giving customers what they want.

Doesn't sound like enough has changed for me personally. I tried a couple of alternatives and ended up with Downcast, which I enjoy. The only downside is the lack of a desktop app, but I'll take that limitation over the horrible Podcast app any time.

Strictly speaking, the tape reel wasn't skeuomorphic. If it had had some sort control function, like dragging on the reel to skim forward or backward, it would be, but now it was just decor. Silly decor as it used up space that could have been spent on controls, and I'm glad it's gone, but skeuomorphic it wasn't.

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A skeuomorph is a physical ornament or design on an object made to resemble another material or technique.

Sounds buggy...still. I can't believe the number of gotchas you mentioned. This sounds like a 1.0 app released by a first time IOS developer who "isn't quite familiar with the in's and out's of how iCloud and IOS devices interact with each other". For an Apple product it's embarrassing, and the "but at least it's come a long way from the the first version" argument just reminds us all how far it still has to go. Apple, just like the iCal redesign on Lion your redesign of the Podcasting app solved a problem that wasn't there. Clearly we will never get back what we want, but at least you could make sure the Podcast app works logically and isn't so buggy. Is that too much to ask from a 600 Billion dollar company? I guess so.

I hate all ya'll who bitched about the reel to reel. I liked that thing a lot and the new Now Playing screen is ugly and crowded by comparison. RIP.

Scott Forestall deserved to be fired for the reel to reel player alone. That thing has no place in the modern world and hid important functionality. How the hell were you supposed to know that sliding up the album art would reveal a reel to reel player and also the controls for how to set sleep timers? I mean seriously, no discoverability there at all. It made the app much less useful to new users.

Sounds buggy...still. I can't believe the number of gotchas you mentioned. This sounds like a 1.0 app released by a first time IOS developer who "isn't quite familiar with the in's and out's of how iCloud and IOS devices interact with each other". For an Apple product it's embarrassing, and the "but at least it's come a long way from the the first version" argument just reminds us all how far it still has to go. Apple, just like the iCal redesign on Lion your redesign of the Podcasting app solved a problem that wasn't there. Clearly we will never get back what we want, but at least you could make sure the Podcast app works logically and isn't so buggy. Is that too much to ask from a 600 Billion dollar company? I guess so.

I haven't run into any bugs with the latest version and I have been using the app quite a bit. Then again, I never had much of an issue with the previous version.

I hate all ya'll who bitched about the reel to reel. I liked that thing a lot and the new Now Playing screen is ugly and crowded by comparison. RIP.

Scott Forestall deserved to be fired for the reel to reel player alone. That thing has no place in the modern world and hid important functionality. How the hell were you supposed to know that sliding up the album art would reveal a reel to reel player and also the controls for how to set sleep timers? I mean seriously, no discoverability there at all. It made the app much less useful to new users.

Look, man. You already got what you wanted. Your opinions about interface design don't make me feel any better about losing something that made me smile on a regular basis.

Strictly speaking, the tape reel wasn't skeuomorphic. If it had had some sort control function, like dragging on the reel to skim forward or backward, it would be, but now it was just decor. Silly decor as it used up space that could have been spent on controls, and I'm glad it's gone, but skeuomorphic it wasn't.

It wan't just decor. It was also an indicator for how far into the podcast you were. A poor indicator lacking in precision, a meaningless indicator for younger people, a redundant indicator as there was a better one on the same screen (wtf!?), but an indicator none the less. That means it most definitely was a skeuomorphism by the same technicality laced logic you use :-)

Could this be the beginning of skeuomorphic UIs? I do hope so. I'm already downloading the bell-effect app to ring its death knell if it does go out of style.

There is a lot of confusion regarding skeuomorphic UI elements floating around, one of those is that skeuomorphic UI → bad UI. Roughly speaking there are three kinds of skeuomorphic UI elements.

First the pure decorative ones, such as corinthian leather, brushed metal, iCal's ripped paper or Lightroom's ornaments. These serve no other purpose other than enhancing the user experience by trying to be pleasing. This is of course a subjective matter, but the aim of it is still to look good.

The second kind is the indicators, they serve to help communicate something to the user. For example the bevel on the buttons raise them above the surrounding content and help indicate that it can be pushed down. This is skeuomorphism that I think we all can agree is additive and positive to the usability of software. Other skeuomorphic elements that belong to this group is icons. Icons that look like the DVD you just placed in the reader, or icons that look like a folder, or a trash can, or a photo…

The third kind is when the two above combine into an amalgamation that defines the constraints of the interface. This is what I suspect most of us are actually rallying against. These are the leather flap hiding content in the iOS notes app. Or the page turning in OSX Calendar that without reason restricts us to always showing the current month rather than the next N weeks, or the three-pane layout of Address Book in OSX that restricts the ability to have a good overview of contacts.

So, did the previous version of the contain any of that last kind? Yes it did, the requirement to open the "lid" to get to some controls was not as good as it ought to be and it constrained the usability of the app. However, the Braun-influenced/copied reel (while taking space) did not constrain usage, it was only a very detailed and perhaps overly verbose indication of player state.

And it looked really nice. I am going to miss it.

(By the way, the new version introduced a new skeuomorphic element: The LP- and CD-influenced flip of the cover art to find other tracks on the back-side that has been in the Music app for a while).

Could this be the beginning of skeuomorphic UIs? I do hope so. I'm already downloading the bell-effect app to ring its death knell if it does go out of style.

There is a lot of confusion regarding skeuomorphic UI elements floating around, one of those is that skeuomorphic UI → bad UI. Roughly speaking there are three kinds of skeuomorphic UI elements.

I get the strong impression there's more than a little of the "kid who's learned a new word" syndrome, and they're going to bloody well say it as often and as loudly as they like, whether they know what it means or not.

First the pure decorative ones, such as corinthian leather, brushed metal, iCal's ripped paper or Lightroom's ornaments. These serve no other purpose other than enhancing the user experience by trying to be pleasing. This is of course a subjective matter, but the aim of it is still to look good.

On the whole I suspect these are the most controversial... The texture of the paper background in the 'Reminders' app on OSX is completely 'unnecessary' but in my view actually does make it easier on the eye. It's a marked contrast with the I-can't-believe-we-can't-call-it-Metro aesthetic on Windows, which I find extremely harsh to use for any length of time.

(Before anyone accuses me of bias there, I should note that I much prefer my Windows Phone to my iPhone, and am quite the evangelist for Metro on the phone, I think it's fantastic - I just find it doesn't scale up to a big screen well.)

Quote:

The third kind is when the two above combine into an amalgamation that defines the constraints of the interface. This is what I suspect most of us are actually rallying against. These are the leather flap hiding content in the iOS notes app. Or the page turning in OSX Calendar that without reason restricts us to always showing the current month rather than the next N weeks, or the three-pane layout of Address Book in OSX that restricts the ability to have a good overview of contacts.

So, did the previous version of the contain any of that last kind? Yes it did, the requirement to open the "lid" to get to some controls was not as good as it ought to be and it constrained the usability of the app. However, the Braun-influenced/copied reel (while taking space) did not constrain usage, it was only a very detailed and perhaps overly verbose indication of player state.

I can't believe it wound people up so much. I've been using the Podcasts app to listen to Radio 4 programmes in the kitchen while I'm cooking for the last few months (getting a mount to attach the iPad to a kitchen cabinet is one of my best purchases) and I never even noticed the damn thing. Maybe that's because when I play a podcast, I then switch to something else (e.g. a recipes app) and listen to the podcast in the background. I don't feel the need to stare mesmerised at an app that realistically demands very little interaction - press play, get on with something else.

Quote:

And it looked really nice. I am going to miss it.

I just had to go and find it to see what people are talking about. It looks kind of cute, a nice touch. Nice touches are... Well, nice. I'm not sure I want to live in a purely functional world.

It turns out that iCloud can propagate the fact that an episode has been played. It just looks like if you do too much too quickly on the same episode using different devices that the syncing for that episode stops working.

A cool detail: when you have a podcast called "The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe" and then an episode named "The Skeptics Guide #401 - Mar 23 2013", Podcasts will shorten this to "#401 - Mar 23 2013" in the episode list. That doesn't work for "The Ars Technicast" and "Ars Technicast, Episode 21 – And then we met the PS4", though. (The Music or iPod app also had some episode name trimming in the past.)

I didn't really mind the tape deck animation that much. What I did mind was having to flick up the screen to see the playhead position and secondary controls. Now it's just a single tap and, more importantly, it remembers that I was looking at these secondary controls when I go away and come back to the Now Playing screen.

Overall it's a very good update but for me two things are missing:

1) I liked being able to see a list of all unplayed episodes of all podcasts in a single list sorted by newest first without any grouping.

2) I want the ability to create smart playlists within the Podcasts app based on a lot more criteria. For example, I would like to create a station called "Short Podcasts" that contained all episodes of all podcasts that were less than 10 minutes long.

Unfortunately you can't do this with an iTunes smart playlist, because episodes you download between iTunes syncs don't appear until you sync again.

I'm not interested in syncing podcasts with iTunes. In the past I spent far too much time and frustration trying to get podcasts synced with iTunes and those downloaded from directly within the iOS Podcasts app to play nice with each other. It was a complete disaster and I have no intention of trying it again. The only way I could get the Podcasts app to make any sense was to cut ties with iTunes altogether as far as podcasts were concerned.

What I really want is the ability to create smart playlists within the iOS Podcasts app with all the same options you have in iTunes.

inpher- skeuomorphic designs are always bad when they reference a technology that no longer exists and that the user doesn't understand. The whole point of them is to make the user more comfortable, how can they do that if the user doesn't even know what it references? Tape players disappeared 15 years ago now. That's a lot of potential users who don't know how they worked and aren't the least bit comfortable seeing them. How would you like it if instead of having a text cursor, the pointer was a cartridge pen where you could see the ink level going down throughout the day? Absurd, right? Because it has nothing to do with how a mouse actually works. Similarly, the limits of reel to reel, of which there were many (warm fuzzy feelings aside) don't apply anymore.

inpher- skeuomorphic designs are always bad when they reference a technology that no longer exists and that the user doesn't understand. The whole point of them is to make the user more comfortable, how can they do that if the user doesn't even know what it references? Tape players disappeared 15 years ago now. That's a lot of potential users who don't know how they worked and aren't the least bit comfortable seeing them. How would you like it if instead of having a text cursor, the pointer was a cartridge pen where you could see the ink level going down throughout the day? Absurd, right? Because it has nothing to do with how a mouse actually works. Similarly, the limits of reel to reel, of which there were many (warm fuzzy feelings aside) don't apply anymore.

I don't completely agree with you on this. While you do have a point about things disappearing, there is the unfortunate situation these days where people are mentally lazy. I would think that if someone is so young that they don't know what a reel to reel is, they would be interested enough to ask.

The problem with much of modern UI design is that it's cold and uninviting. I know that "information is the thing", but we don't all live in post modern homes with post modern furniture either. Much of that is simply uncomfortable, both in looks and feeling. The same thing is true of UI design. Seriously, what's uglier than Win 8? Not picking on Microsoft particularly, but they went all the way over. I feel that there should be something in between.

Why is some whimsy in the UI wrong? It isn't wrong. We don't always need every square centimeter used up by data. Sometimes a little bit of attractiveness is a good thing. I know that I don't want every developer's work to look like every other developer's work, and every program to look like every other program. But that is exactly what will happen if some people cry that we need all that space all the time for all the data. There are only a few ways that can be accomplished.

So while I don't want a small screen having a third taken up by some decorative element, some small touches are welcome. I see nothing wrong with a writing app having a pen as a graphic, or a phone app using the old fashioned phone handset as a graphic, etc.

What I'm really not happy with are the UI bigots who like to think that they are so sophisticated that anything other than a totally "flat" as they like to call it, UI, should be gotten rid of as fast as possible. I have to assume they all live in their Bauhaus homes with their Bauhaus furniture, and their modern artwork, and that they all walk around wearing Star Trek clothing, eating reconstituted food.

Mel, that's absurd. You're saying a young person today should find some old guy and ask him about tape players so he can understand the interface on his modern smartphone? You're assuming that the young person evenrealizes that it's some archaic technology that an older (but still living) person could explain to him, rather than something from the 19th century only an historian could identify.

If you're going to have skeumorphism, them it should at least be readily comprehensible to the overwhelming majority of the users that will have to manipulate that interface.

How appropriate... Just as I return to this thread my iPhone starts playing Heartbreak on Vinyl...

sessamoid wrote:

Mel, that's absurd. You're saying a young person today should find some old guy and ask him about tape players so he can understand the interface on his modern smartphone? You're assuming that the young person evenrealizes that it's some archaic technology that an older (but still living) person could explain to him, rather than something from the 19th century only an historian could identify.

If you're going to look for something to rail against, the 3.5" floppy icon for Save would be a good place to start. A bit of non-functional eye-candy on a secondary screen that you can completely ignore seems like a bad place to start worrying.

Anyway, the idea that everything we ever come across should be instantly recognisable is rather sad. Whatever happened to piquing curiosity? Whatever happened to "I wonder what that is?" Or are you all too goddamned lazy now?

Quote:

If you're going to have skeumorphism, them it should at least be readily comprehensible to the overwhelming majority of the users that will have to manipulate that interface.

inpher- skeuomorphic designs are always bad when they reference a technology that no longer exists and that the user doesn't understand. The whole point of them is to make the user more comfortable, how can they do that if the user doesn't even know what it references? Tape players disappeared 15 years ago now. That's a lot of potential users who don't know how they worked and aren't the least bit comfortable seeing them. How would you like it if instead of having a text cursor, the pointer was a cartridge pen where you could see the ink level going down throughout the day? Absurd, right? Because it has nothing to do with how a mouse actually works. Similarly, the limits of reel to reel, of which there were many (warm fuzzy feelings aside) don't apply anymore.

I assume you mean "That no longer exists [in the common vocabulary]", right?

Such as this ancient device?

Spoiler: show

Or eydropper tool, that actually change just like you described?

Spoiler: show

Or how about corded telephones?

Spoiler: show

Or tapes?

Spoiler: show

Cultural and contextual knowledge is just as important as the awareness of the historical reason for knowing the meaning of some UI element. While I would gladly join you in mocking any application that is still using the floppy disk as a save icon I want to re-iterate my points from my earlier posts: It is only when the skeuomorphic elements define the constraints of the behaviour of the user interface that it is a negative thing (though some skeuomorphic elements can be tacky and/or ugly).

Skeuomorphic elements that define these constraints is what causes the trouble. Do I need to know that the time-line / duration indicator in VLC or any other application comes from the cassette player to understand what it means? Do I really need to know what a painter's palette is to understand the general gist of it? Does the reel as seen in context prevent discoverability or usability? Does the time-line / duration indicator in VLC prevent discoverability or usability?

These questions need to be asked before answering the question whether it was a good choice or not.

In cartoons anvils still get dropped on characters or they get blown up with dynamite. Not sure how many people who watch cartoons have first hand experience with either of these. Language is also riddled with sayings that nobody even knows the meaning of anymore.

Iljitsch van Beijnum / Iljitsch is a contributing writer at Ars Technica, where he contributes articles about network protocols as well as Apple topics. He is currently finishing his Ph.D work at the telematics department at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain.